Born in 1991 in Paris, Léonard Martin currently lives and works in the French capital. The French art scene has been captivated by his work since he graduated from Beaux-Arts de Paris in 2015. In 2018-2019, he was artist-in-residence at the French Academy in Rome at the Villa Medici. His creative process makes use of drawings, papers and precious sculptures he occasionally animates with stop motion, a motor or video. He finds his subjects by delving into literature and the history of art. Wooden figures on tracks bring to life the characters of Irish novelist and poet James Joyce on their strolls. Italian painter Paolo Uccello’s horse riders serve as a pretext to create an interactive piece. He sometimes takes a break from building marionettes and automatons and uses painting to capture the theatre of objects that is his workshop. Visibly playing with perspective and cultural labels, particularly “painting” and “sculptures”, the scenes he creates generate a dialogue between mediums and eras.

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